Celilo Natural Health Centerhttps://www.celilohealth.com
Naturopathic Clinic in Northeast PortlandFri, 04 Jan 2019 00:01:53 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.9healthy presents for the holidayshttps://www.celilohealth.com/healthy-presents-for-the-holidays/
https://www.celilohealth.com/healthy-presents-for-the-holidays/#respondThu, 22 Nov 2018 00:57:56 +0000https://www.celilohealth.com/?p=2095Stumped about what to get friends and family for special occasions? Want to help them get and stay healthy? Here are my top recommendations. (What follows are affiliate links.)

Food is the First Medicine

Nutrition seems confusing, but eating right can be simple. The bottom line: eat whole foods. My colleagues Dr. Julie Briley and Dr. Courtney Jackson took their 12-week cooking and nutrition class and made it into a book — one that answers many questions folks have, and some they didn’t know to ask. Get Food As Medicine Everyday here.

Another favorite book is Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson. It lives in my consultation room so patients can read bits of it while I’m preparing their prescriptions. Robinson shares great tips about maximizing the benefits you get from vegetables and fruits, and even gives you shopping lists of the most nutritious varieties of each.

Did you know that olive oil is seven times more effective at pulling nutrients out of lettuce than soybean oil is? Or that cooking carrots whole in some form of fat is the healthiest? Or that frescos of beets adorned the walls of ancient brothels? The book is filled with fascinating and useful facts like those. This book is great for food geeks and newbies alike.

Healthy Cooking Made Easy

Have you joined the InstantPot revolution? I’m not much of a cook, and so not much of a fan of kitchen gadgets. But this is one I actually use. With functions for sauteeing, steaming, slow cooking and pressure cooking, this one device is well worth the counter space. There are lots of great recipes available online — try this one for Vietnamese Caramel Salmon, which is fast, easy and comes out perfect every time. Get an InstantPot here:

Aspirational Cookware

The healthiest no-stick cookware out there is made from cast iron, and a good piece will last a lifetime. Cast-iron cooking is a regular prescription for my anemic patients. By far the most gorgeous options out there are made by Finex, right here in Portland, Oregon. Each vessel’s cooking service is honed to an incredibly smooth finish, and comes preseasoned with organic flaxseed oil. They’re heavy, truly heavy. But weight-bearing exercise is good for you, right?

Here’s a picture of the Finex Dutch oven for you, too. Because it’s so beautiful.

Organic produce delivered to your door

We are blessed with access to great organic fruits and vegetables here in this corner of the world. And it’s easier than ever to get these directly from the farms to your house. Lately I’ve been getting a weekly veggie box from Full Circle.

Stress Less for the Holidays With Vitamin N (Nature)

Nature is literally curative — it’s empirically shown to reduce stress, improve mood, lower inflammation and even boost joy. Curious about the science of this? Read all about it in Florence Williams’ excellent book, The Nature Fix. This is another book that lives on my consultation room desk, and it’s recommended reading for my Holidays Stress Less Vitamin N (Nature) Challenge.Williams is a journalist in the best storytelling sense, making the book a very readable adventure that makes the science accessible. This book will bolster a nature lover’s passion and might spur the less enthusiastic to give Vitamin N a try.

Get to the gym without leaving home

I’ve never been a particularly athletic person, but a couple of years ago my stress levels forced me to try it. We all know exercise is important medicine, but it doesn’t work if you don’t do it. My sister Jeannie started doing these at-home kettle bell workout videos from Michael Skoggand it changed her life. I started with a single bell at home, and now go to Michael’s gym — and routinely lift a kettle bell that weighs as much as I do! I recommend kettle bells to many of my patients as a convenient way to fit exercise into a busy schedule: just a few minutes can make big changes in your health. These videos are a great way get started.

As for kettle bells themselves, a pair of 4 kg (9 pound) bells make a great start. You’ll quickly graduate to a pair of 8 kg bells. Those two sizes are enough to keep you fit. These are what I have at home. If you want to keep going, I consider a gym membership. You’ll get coached on form and have lots of bell sizes to choose from.

Access high quality supplements

Friends don’t let friends buy supplements on Amazon. Why? Because what you see is very often unrelated to what you get. You might get lucky, or you might get sick. There’s no knowing how long a supplement has been sitting in a random Amazon reseller’s warehouse, or under what conditions. And some people report getting bottles that are falsely labeled. You just don’t want to risk it.

My patients can get supplements online through my online dispensary. Fullscript, accessible only to practitioners, works with the same distributor I use to supply the clinic. You’ll see my favorite supplements, the ones I recommend most often in practice and with which my patients get the best results. Many are not otherwise available to the public.

Another great option: in-person support

Sometimes you just need another person’s take on your situation. Making an appointment is a great self-care present to keep you healthy through the holidays and beyond!

]]>https://www.celilohealth.com/healthy-presents-for-the-holidays/feed/0do you know how to eat?https://www.celilohealth.com/do-you-know-how-to-eat/
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:53:51 +0000http://www.celilohealth.com/?p=2030Portlanders are a pretty food-savvy bunch. We know what to ask about the provenance of our food. We pay attention to ingredients, to gluten, to dairy, to grass-fed/free-range/high-omega-3/sustainability parameters (except when we just go for a donut.)

So it sometimes surprises me that folks who know what to eat often don’t know how to eat. And while great food matters, what’s the point if we don’t digest it well?

Here’s one key: When we’re under stress, our digestive system literally turns off. What a waste of good food!

Taking a moment before meals to get quiet, to give thanks, to offer a prayer, or whatever you prefer, literally helps you digest better. This ancient tradition has a scientific, physiological rationale!

My colleague Dr. Courtney Jackson lays it all out in this TEDx talk, and I highly encourage you to watch it.

Want to learn more? The Food as Medicine Institute in Portland (cofounded by Dr. Jackson) offers 12-week cooking and nutrition classes that I recommend to all my patients. It’s a great way to jump start health, and helps get me and my patients on the same page about basic concepts. Ask at your appointment about the 20-percent discount code!

And then, of course, there are appointments with me. When you’re in the office we’ll discuss what does and doesn’t work for you specifically, and come up with ways to optimize your food choices and health. Bon appetit!

It’s two days before Thanksgiving and even though my plans are pretty mellow, I’m starting to feel the stress creeping into my body. This morning it woke me up, feeling like tendrils of tension wrapping around my throat and heart.

My still-half-sleeping brain began noodling on the question of what to do about it. And I thought, if Nature is the best medicine, what about committing to spending time out in it each day until the holiday craziness is safely past?

And then I thought, wouldn’t this be easier, more joyful and more effective if a bunch of us did it together?

Each day between now and January 2 I’m committing to a minimum of 7 intentional minutes with Nature as a way to tame my holiday stress.

Will you join me?

The rules: Since this is about reducing stress, the goal is to keep it simple and manageable. Say hi to an urban street tree for a few minutes. Put yourself into an amazing vista. Tickle whatever’s alive in your garden. Walk along a creek, river or beach. Get to wilderness, if doing so won’t increase your stress. And if you live in a deeply rural setting? Just take that 7 minutes a day to be in and appreciate some aspect of your landscape.

It all counts if you do it purposefully — as a commitment to connecting to nature, ideally outdoors, to reduce your holiday (or other) stress.

I’ll be taking and posting pictures of my daily Nature time to the Facebook group because 1) it’s fun and 2) it will hopefully inspire you. Please share your own pictures, stories and questions!

So here’s to a smooth slide through the upcoming season. Thank you for getting into Nature with me.

It’s the “most wonderful time of the year” — and depression is rampant. Between the darkness (if you live in the northern hemisphere), family drama and financial stresses, it’s a time when many people find their mood going in an unhappy direction. Here are some tangible tips for feeling better.

1. Exercise.
Depression by definition diminishes most motivation. But getting off the couch can make a remarkable difference in your emotional resilience. Exercise literally changes not only the chemicals being made in your brain, but also how well those chemicals work. It doesn’t have to be intense and it doesn’t have to be very much. Just starting will help those clouds lift.

2. Get some sun.The winter’s lack of light makes lots of people low. The effect isn’t new — it’s been described since the 1800s. These days there’s a name for it, complete with cute acronym: seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

Adding light can help. Outdoor, natural daylight is best, especially in the morning. But many companies also sell light boxes that researchers find really do help — even for summertime depression.

Photo by Nathalie Dulex.

3. You are how you eat.
Author Michael Pollan said it best: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Filling up with fresh fruits and veggies also has another happy side effect: reducing your exposure to mood-busting sugar and processed foods.

4. Up the fish oils.
The long dark winters in Iceland don’t translate into high levels of depression there, and scientists think the reason is in the high-omega-3 fish the locals consume.

For people who are depressed, researchers have found significant improvements in mood after just two weeks of therapy with fish oil.

How does it work? The omega-3 oils reduce depression-causing inflammatory chemicals and improved cellular function, all of which make a happier brain.

5. Feed your gut microflora, too.The first-line prescription therapy for depression is a class of drugs that increase serotonin availability in the brain. But most serotonin is found in the gut, where it helps signal the movements needed to promote digestion.

We’re designed to make a lot of serotonin ourselves, with the help of foods and the healthy flora in our guts. Supporting that flora with probiotics —found in foods such as sauerkraut, kimchee, live yoghurt and miso — can help make more serotonin available to the whole body, including the brain.

6. Give flower essences a try.
Having flower essences on hand can offer a quick pick-me-up, or support long-term healing. Take four drops as needed, or four times daily in a little water over the longer term. They don’t interact with any other medications, and the only concern is a tiny amount of alcohol.

Walnut flower essence is the go-to for dealing with overbearing family. Try Star of Bethlehem for dealing with grief and trauma. Sweet chestnut helps deep, dark despair and hopelessness. Pine relieves guilt. And willow helps when you feel resentful or sorry for yourself. For some sunshine in a bottle, try the Solstice Sun environmental essence from wild Alaska. (All of these are available in the office, and we offer custom blends for all our patients.)

7. Learn more.
While there’s no substitute for talking with friends or professional counselors, these books can help you understand what’s going on and offer suggestions for helping yourself.

8. If you need help, get help.Sometimes the blues are transient, and simple home fixes like these are all you need. But if the darkness persists, remember that you are not alone. Naturopaths and psychologists are an important part of getting better.

If you’re battling the blues this holiday season, be sure to take some moments out to take care of you!

]]>https://www.celilohealth.com/holiday-in-blue/feed/2An easy way to eat more veggieshttps://www.celilohealth.com/an-easy-way-to-eat-more-veggies/
https://www.celilohealth.com/an-easy-way-to-eat-more-veggies/#respondThu, 08 Nov 2018 23:27:12 +0000https://www.celilohealth.com/?p=2068Wednesday is veggie box day at my house, and it’s been really helping me up my personal food game. I often recommend delivery services like this one from Full Circle to patients as a way to help keep fresh vegetables in the house — because eating veggies is a non-negotiable part of healthy living.

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How many vegetables should you eat? I recommend most folks fill half the plate with veggies at every meal. It’s more than many of us are used to, but it’s one of the critical steps to improving your health.

If you’re interested in the box I discuss here, you can check it out here. Use the code “ZRNA7244” to get $15 off your first order. (Disclosure: this referral link also kicks some money back to me.)

Boxes aren’t for everyone. Whatever works for you is great. Just keep eating your veggies!

PS. Also, please forgive my face in that thumbnail! How does YouTube manage to find the ugliest moments of the video? I’m getting up to speed on all the video things, so look for these to get better over time.

So, as you now know, I didn’t make a resolution. What I did instead was stumble upon an idea that became a mantra: indulge positive impulses.

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For instance: I’ve just made a meal and there’s a dirty pot in the sink. I think, hey, it would just take a sec to clean that pot. And then I think, yeah, but my food is going to get cold. I’ll do it later.

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You know that line of thinking doesn’t end well.

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So I did the dishes when it occurred to me I should. Because cleaning one pot really isn’t a big deal. It’s just a few seconds. If I clean it while I bitch about stupid mantras that make me do dishes before I eat, the pot is clean before I’ve even gotten a good whine going. And getting that done means cleaning my dish after dinner is easier, because there’s nothing cluttering up the sink. And that has made me more likely to cook, since I don’t have to do a boatload of dishes before getting started. And once I started to trust that I wasn’t going to have the hurdle of a boatload of dishes, I started cooking things that might use more than one pot. (I even made a recipe out of a cookbook — but it took nearly 12 months to do so.)

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On New Year’s Day, my rockstar friend Dr. Tyna Moore created a Facebook group, Dr. Tyna’s 30-Day Squat Challenge. The idea was to do squats daily for 30 days, and have a group to support the effort. She does it with heavy weights, because as I said, she’s a rockstar. I’m more the couch potato type, so I counted things like grabbing a jar from a low cabinet (with good squat form, of course). I counted doing just five while getting dressed in the morning. On her birthday, I made a tiny little iPhone video of me squatting, moving in and out of the frame. Because I love her. Because I could.

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But as with the dishes, it started to morph. I started adding squats intentionally when picking things up off the floor. I bought a 30-pound kettle bell and squatted while holding it. I started swinging the kettle bell in my bedroom. I went to a class to make sure I could swing the bell without hurting myself. I mentioned this to my friend Jeannie, who recommended a local kettle-bell gym. I’m now a semi regular there; the owner knows me by name. I’ve done two robust hikes (one gaining 3,000 feet in elevation over the course of 3 miles — and back down) and can dead lift nearly 100 pounds.

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My life is still my life. I’m no gym rat. I’m no clean freak (there are dirty dishes in the sink right now). I don’t always feed myself as well as I should. I watch too much teevee on the iThing. But I have made some pretty significant changes that were totally unexpected. And I did it without beating myself up. I did it by letting the quiet voice be heard, the voice that wants to live well.

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It’s still a few days to the New Year, and there are plenty of things on my mind. But I’m going to refresh my mantra for 2017, keeping up with the steps I’ve taken this year and adding some attention to thoughtful communication — in the sense of both reading and writing. So hopefully you’ll be hearing more from me. And hopefully what I’m learning will help and inspire you.

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At the top of Alaska’s Exit Glacier — 3 miles in, 3,000 feet up. I did it!

]]>https://www.celilohealth.com/thoughts-on-the-new-year/feed/0you’ve got the powerhttps://www.celilohealth.com/youve-got-the-power/
https://www.celilohealth.com/youve-got-the-power/#commentsThu, 15 Dec 2016 18:50:02 +0000http://www.celilohealth.com/?p=1948A few years ago, a patient came in with some unexplained symptoms. She’d been to the hospital twice, and even had a small surgery that didn’t help the problem. Bad as that was, she’d also gotten some bad news on a related genetic test. You can imagine she was pretty scared.

Researchers, publishing in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, found that lifestyle choices cut in half the risk of heart diseases (heart attack, coronary bypass, death from heart disease), even in people with high genetic risk.

This is huge. As the author notes, “lifestyle changes are as powerful as, if not more powerful than, many drugs we recommend and pay billions of dollars for all the time.”

What were those lifestyle changes? Not a single surprising thing. Not a one.

]]>https://www.celilohealth.com/youve-got-the-power/feed/2the third level of healthcarehttps://www.celilohealth.com/the-third-level-of-healthcare/
Sun, 04 Dec 2016 14:30:20 +0000http://www.celilohealth.com/?p=1931You’ve been to your primary-care doctor. You’ve been to a specialist. Maybe you’ve even been to multiple specialists.

And they’ve given you bad news, or confusing news, or they say there’s nothing wrong when clearly something is.

That’s where the third level of care comes in. And that’s my specialty.

]]>join me at the food as medicine symposiumhttps://www.celilohealth.com/food-as-medicine-2017/
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 17:12:42 +0000http://www.celilohealth.com/?p=1923If you’ve watched my second video, you know digestion is one of the three keys to the optimal-health kingdom. And I’ll be talking about spice-rack solutions to help keep your system going strong at the fourth annual Food as Medicine Symposium.

I’m thrilled to be on the same lineup as the great Sandor Ellix Katz, who inspired me to start making my own gut-loving sauerkraut and kimchee. (When my supplement-refusing cousin started fermenting, it turned around his health and that of his family. I’m a huge fan!)

]]>the three keys to optimal healthhttps://www.celilohealth.com/the-three-keys/
https://www.celilohealth.com/the-three-keys/#commentsSat, 26 Nov 2016 16:35:49 +0000http://www.celilohealth.com/?p=1915At its root, health really isn’t that complicated. Getting and staying health comes down to three simple things — assimilation, elimination and managing inflammation. In this short(ish) video, Dr. Izakson breaks it down and gives you the key to the natural-health kingdom.